423 DTC drivers may have poor vision, 40 off duty
Around 40 Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) drivers have been taken off duty after it was found that they have been plying on the city’s roads for the past five years despite having serious eye problems.
Around 40 Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) drivers have been taken off duty after it was found that they have been plying on the city’s roads for the past five years despite having serious eye problems.
A batch of 423 drivers hired in 2008 came under suspicion a few days ago after one of them killed a motorcyclist. Doctors from the DTC, the Guru Nanak Eye Centre and a few reputed eye hospitals began conducting tests on April 9 and found that around 40 of the drivers had problems such as colour blindness. They have been taken off duty, while tests are going on for the rest.
According to sources, the DTC had hired about 2,800 drivers through the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) in 2008. But 423 of them were rejected by doctors on the DTC’s panel on grounds that they had serious vision problems.
“These drivers claimed that their eyes were perfect and even got certificates from other ophthalmologists at private and government hospitals. We asked them to get their eyes checked at the Guru Nanak Eye Centre and hired them after they were cleared,” a DTC official said.
Sources said many of these drivers had even ferried foreign athletes and delegates during the Commonwealth Games.
Another DTC official said that people with colour blindness are ineligible to get driving licences, so it needs to be inquired how they got licences to drive commercial passenger vehicles.
The drivers, however, are not happy and allege that they are being targeted.